DCLM Daily Manna 7 August 2024

TOPIC: The Challenge Of Change

TEXT: Acts 10:9-13 (KJV)
⁹ On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour:

¹⁰ And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance,

¹¹ And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending upon him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth:

¹² Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.

¹³ And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.

KEY VERSE
“And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.”
Acts 10:13

DCLM Daily Manna  7 August 2024 MESSAGE

In a sense, there is truth in an anonymous writer’s assertion that “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at will change”. This brings to the fore the issue of perspectives – how we see things or people. It takes a change of perspective (which is not always easy) to have a change of attitude.

God had to use an extraordinary means to make Apostle Peter have a change of perspective and therefore, a change of attitude towards the gentile world. The gospel had been restricted to the Jews, but it was time for a transition from Jewry to the gentile space.

In a trance, a hungry Peter was shown a vessel containing all sorts of four-footed beasts, creeping things and fowls of the air descending from heaven towards him. Then a voice ordered him to rise, kill and eat the animals. Of course, being a typical Jew, Peter was reluctant to act on the instruction; he would have nothing to do with anything regarded as common or unclean.

READ DCLM Daily Manna Tuesday 6 August 2024 – The Lure of Idolatrous Customs

Those creatures were symbolic of the gentiles. It was done to prepare Peter to accept the opening of the door of salvation to them through him. The eventual conversion of Cornelius, a gentile centurion in Caesarea, launched the gospel to the outer world, which Apostle Paul came to fulfil. Indeed, as observed by William Cowper, “God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform”. To walk with Him, we must keep His pace and willingly subsume our ideas, prejudices, preferences, assumptions and perspectives into His will and purpose.

When God sends us on an errand that lies outside our comfort zone, we should not yield to the temptation to resist the divine instruction. Divinely ordered change may be challenging but in the end, it bears the sweet fruits of God’s purpose.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
God effects a major change through us by changing our perspective.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR
John 16-18